The Project

CCH is striving to break this cycle of poverty through providing their students and the community at large with vocational training at minimal costs. CCH has obtained support for educational components of its programming, but currently lack the building or supplies necessary for training. As such, WAVES and CCH have been working together since March 2015, striving to find innovative solutions for project completion. Haiti receives a large amount of shipping containers each year; however, very few shipments are exported out of the country. This process leaves the country with an excessive amount of containers that have ultimately proven to be excellent shells for building hurricane-proof structures. These containers will serve as the building materials utilized to construct CCH’s vocational training center, providing a sustainable solution to a Les Cayes community need. The items needed for welding and construction will ship in April of this year, and construction will begin in June of 2018. Construction of the facility is being coordinated through local contractors, WAVES students, and CCH employees. A local contractor will oversee implementation in order to ensure that the Les Cayes community is able to maintain these structures and later add to them if needed. During construction, the students and staff of CCH will learn skills in metalwork, carpentry, electrical work, plumbing, HVAC, and basic structural engineering. Following completion of the training center, CCH will continue to hold classes to teach sewing, carpentry, welding, metal work, entrepreneurship, accounting, 3D modeling with computer-aided design software, and 3D printing. These classes will be taught by local instructors who have already pledged commitment to the project and whose instruction will continue until CCH staff are fully trained to lead classes on their own. The courses offered emerged from identified community needs, such as the need for facilities which operate on solar energy due to inconsistent local power grids. One aspect of CCH’s vocational training curriculum will equip students with the capability to maintain and install these solar energy systems which are in such high demand.